222 



MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE APPLE, THE CRAB AND THE HYBRID. 



PROF. S, B. (JKEEN, ST. ANTHONY PARK. 



PIr. President, Ladies and Genflenien: I prepared no paper 

 on this subject, as I had no time to do so. I have thought as the 

 time limit is five minutes that I would try to give you as clear a 

 definition in regard to the difference between the crab and the apple 

 as I could in that time. In the first place, it is very hard, indeed, to 

 define what a crab is and what an apple is. In Kurope the Pyrus 

 malus is referred to as the crab, or the common apple. We are 

 apt. when we speak of the Pyrus malus in our meetings, to refer 

 to the large apple, that is, the standard apple, but this gives us no 

 cleardefinition of what are sold as crabs and what are sold as ap- 

 ples in our markets, and I do not know that there is any very clear 

 distinction. The crab, as we name it, or what we generally consider 

 the crab, is probably the Pyrus baccata.and its distinguishing marks, 

 as we know them, are that the wood of the tree is rather wirj'^, and the 



Bud variation in the Apple. 



leaves are nearer together than those of the Pyrus malus, and the 

 fruit is rather long-stemmed — but that is not necessarily a charac- 

 teristic of the crab. The fruit of the crab is kind of translucent 

 the calyx falling from it when the fruit is ripe. These are the most 

 distinct characteristics of the Pyrus baccata in cultivation. I think 

 that practically all the so-called crabs that we cultivate, such as the 

 Minnesota, Strawberry, Transcendent and so on, are hybrids, and, of 

 course, in many cases the parentage is very indistinct. Little is 

 known of their origin, but I believe they are all hybrids without ex- 

 ception, for they certainly seem to partake of the characteristics of 

 Pyrus malus as well as of Pyrus baccata. 



